Pavo Constellation: Facts, Myth, Stars, Location, Deep Sky Objects | Constellation Guide Constellation Guide Constellations: A Guide to the Night Sky Pavo Constellation Pavo constellation lies in the southern sky. Its name means “the peacock” in Latin. The constellation was introduced by the Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius from the observations of Dutch navigators Frederick de Houtman and Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser in the late 16th century. Pavo was first depicted in 1598 on Plancius’ globe and first appeared in a star atlas in 1603, in Johann Bayer’s Uranometria. In Australia, a part of the constellation is known as “the Saucepan” and used as a guide to finding the south. Pavo is notable for its bright star Peacock, the nearby solar analog Delta Pavonis, the interacting galaxies NGC 6872 and IC 4970, and several other deep sky objects. FACTS, LOCATION & MAP Pavo Constellation Map, by IAU and Sky&Telescope magazine Pavo is the 44th constellation in size, occupying an area of 378 square degrees.

It is located in the fourth quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ4) and can be seen at latitudes between +30° and -90°. The neighboring constellations are Apus , Ara , Indus , Octans and Telescopium . Pavo contains five stars with confirmed planets and has no Messier objects. The brightest star in the constellation is Peacock, Alpha Pavonis, with an apparent magnitude of 1.94. There is one meteor shower associated with the constellation: the Delta Pavonids. Pavo belongs to the Johann Bayer family of constellations, along with Apus , Chamaeleon , Dorado , Grus , Hydrus , Indus , Musca , Phoenix , Tucana and Volans . MYTH The constellation is believed to represent the Java green peacock which the Dutch navigators de Houtman and Keyser probably encountered on their journey to the East Indies. In Greek mythology, the peacock was Hera’s sacred bird. The goddess drove through the air in a chariot drawn by peacocks. There is a myth specifically associated with the peacock’s tail and how it came to have eyes on it.

When Zeus fell in love with Io, a nymph and priestess of Hera in Argos, he turned her into a cow to hide her from Hera when the goddess almost caught the two. Hera was suspicious nonetheless and tasked the giant Argus with keeping an eye on the heifer. Argus had a hundred eyes, which made him an excellent guard. (He is also sometimes known as Argus Panoptes, the epithet Panoptes meaning “all seeing.”) Argus tied Io to an olive tree in Nemea, and Zeus dispatched Hermes to free the nymph from the giant. Hermes obliged and came to Earth disguised as a shepherd. He spent a day telling Argus stories and playing reed pipes until all of Argus’ eye became tired. When the giant fell asleep, Hermes hit him with a stone and killed him. To honour Argus’ memory, Hera placed his eyes on her sacred bird’s tail. MAJOR STARS IN PAVO Peacock – α Pavonis (Alpha Pavonis) Alpha Pavonis is the brightest star in Pavo. It is located near the border with the constellation Telescopium .

The star has an apparent visual magnitude of 1.94 and is approximately 179 light years distant from Earth. Alpha Pavonis is a blue-white subgiant star belonging to the spectral class B2 IV. It is a spectroscopic binary with an orbital period of 11.753 days. Since the stars in the binary system cannot be resolved, the companion’s stellar classification is unknown. The name Peacock was given to the star by Her Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office in the late 1930s. HMNAO, which is now part of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, produces astronomical data and publishes the Nautical Almanac. They assigned the name Peacock to Alpha Pavonis when they created the Air Almanac, a navigational guide for the Royal Air Force, which included 57 bright stars. Only two of them did not have proper names at the time: Alpha Pavonis and Epsilon Carinae in the constellation Carina . The RAF insisted that all the stars in the almanac have names, so Alpha Pavonis was named Peacock, after the constellation, and Epsilon Carinae got the name Avior.

Peacock has six times the Sun’s mass and 5-6 times the solar radius. It is 2,200 times more luminous than the Sun. β Pavonis (Beta Pavonis) Beta Pavonis is the second brightest star in the constellation. It has a visual magnitude of 3.42 and is approximately 137 light years distant. It is a subgiant star belonging to the spectral class A5IV. It is 58 times more luminous than the Sun and has 3.8 times the solar radius. δ Pavonis (Delta Pavonis) Delta Pavonis is one of the nearest bright stars to the Sun. It is only 19.92 light years distant and has an apparent visual magnitude of 3.56. The star can be seen without binoculars from the southern hemisphere. Delta Pavonis is a subgiant star with the stellar classification G8 IV. It is 22% more luminous than the Sun, slightly less massive with 99.1% of the Sun’s mass, and 122% of the solar radius. Its age is estimated to be between 6.6 and 6.9 billion years.

The star has a 214% abundance of iron in its atmosphere compared to the Sun, which sometimes indicates the presence of a planet in a star’s orbit. None have been discovered yet, however. Delta Pavonis was identified as the “Best SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) target” of the 100 nearest G-class stars by Maggie Turnbull and Jill Tarter or the SETI Institute. It is the nearest solar analog that is not part of a binary or multiple star system. γ Pavonis (Gamma Pavonis) Gamma Pavonis is a main sequence star belonging to the spectral class F9 V. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.22 and is 30.21 light years distant. The star has a 15% larger radius and 21% greater mass than the Sun. It is 152% more luminous. Gamma Pavonis is ranked 14th on the Terrestial Planet Finder’s top 100 target stars to search for a planet similar to ours located in the star’s Habitable Zone.

φ2 Pavonis (Phi-2 Pavonis, HD 196378) Phi-2 Pavonis is a dwarf star, yellow-white in colour and belonging to the spectral class F8V. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.12 and is 81.6 light years distant from Earth. The star is currently in the process of evolving into a subgiant. HD 181433 HD 181433 is somewhere between being a red giant and a subgiant. It has the stellar classification K3III-IV and is approximately 87 light years distant. With an apparent visual magnitude of 8.38, the star cannot be seen without a telescope. In 2008, three extrasolar planets were discovered orbiting the star. Looking like a hoard of gems fit for an emperor’s collection, this deep sky object called NGC 6752 is in fact far more worthy of admiration. It is a globular cluster, and at over 10 billion years old is one the most ancient collections of stars known.

NGC 6752 contains a high number of “blue straggler” stars, some of which are visible in this image. Image: ESA, Hubble & NASA DEEP SKY OBJECTS IN PAVO NGC 6752 NGC 6752 is a globular cluster. It is the third brightest globular star cluster in the night sky, fainter only than 47 Tucanae (NGC 104) in the constellation Tucana and Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) in Centaurus . The cluster has an apparent visual magnitude of 5.4 and is about 13,000 light years distant from the solar system. NGC 6872 and IC 4970 NGC 6872 and IC 4970 are a pair of interacting galaxies in Pavo. NGC 6872 and IC 4970 – The image shows the spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 that is shaped like an “integral sign”.

It is of type SBb and is accompanied by a smaller, interacting galaxy, IC 4970 of type S0 (just above the centre). The bright object to the lower right of the galaxies is a star in the Milky Way whose image has been strongly overexposed and exhibits multiple optical reflections in the telescope and instrument. Image: ESO They have an apparent visual magnitude of 12.7 and 14.7 and are approximately 220 million light years distant from the solar system. IC 4970 is a type E7-S0 elliptical galaxy. NGC 6872 is the larger galaxy of the two. It is a barred spiral galaxy in shaped like an integral sign. It has one significantly disrupted spiral arm which is home to many young blue stars. The starburst activity in the region is believed to have been caused by IC 4970 recently passing through it. NGC 6872 is one of the largest barred spiral galaxies known. It extends across almost 380,000 light years.

NGC 6744 (Caldwell 101) NGC 6744, image: ESO NGC 6744 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Pavo. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 9.14 and is approximately 31 million light years distant. It is one of the most similar nearby galaxies to the Milky Way. NGC 6744 has at least one satellite galaxy, the distorted NGC 6744A, which bears a passing resemblance to one of the Magellanic Clouds, irregular dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. IC 4687 forms a triplet with two other galaxies: IC 4686 to the right and IC 4689 further to the right. IC 4687 has a chaotic body of stars, gas and dust and a large curly tail to the left. The two companions are partially obscured by dark bands of dust. The interacting triplet is about 250 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Pavo, the Peacock. Image: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage, and A.

Evans IC 4687, IC 4689, IC 4687/6, AM 1809-574 IC 4687, IC 4689, and IC 4686, are a triplet of interacting and merging galaxies in Pavo constellation. They are located approximately 250 million light years distant from the solar system. IC 4687 has a chaotic disk of stars and deformed spiral arms as a result of the collision with its neighbours. IC 4686 has a very bright nucleus, and IC 4689 has a distinct hook. The three galaxies will eventually merge into one giant galaxy, but for now they are home to many starburst regions, which appear as glowing blue patches and are formed of millions hot, young blue stars. NGC 6782 NGC 6782 is a barred spiral galaxy in Pavo. It has a visual magnitude of 11.8 and is approximately 183 million light years distant.

NGC 6782, image: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team Astronomy Pavo Pavo Webster's Online Dictionary Pavo represents the male peacock (pavo cristatus; crested pavo), a male peafowl of the pheasant family. The feathers of its spectacular long tail, or train, are marked with iridescent eyelike spots and that can be spread in a fanlike form. The tail consists of some 250 long feathers, about 150 of which are decorated with a purplish black-centred coppery eye-spot [ 2 ]. The peacock was endowed with the power to kill snakes, and apparently they are known to eat small poisonous snakes [ 3 ]. Because of its ability to swallow snakes and assimilate their venom, it was seen as a symbol of transmutation, and the venom gave its flesh an immunity to decay. It also accounted for its colorful plumage: "The shimmering colors of his tail feathers were explained by his supposed ability to transform snake venom into solar iridescence" [ 4 ].

Indus and Pavo in Corbinianus Thomas, Firmamentum firmianum, 1730 4 Indus and Pavo, the Indian and the Peacock, are usually depicted together. The Peacock appears to be watching the figure of the Indian. Indus, might also represent Io, the heifer. In his Metamorphoses the Roman poet Ovid tells how Io was seduced by Zeus (Jupiter), Hera's husband. In a vain attempt to hide his crime, Zeus changed himself into a cloud (the Small Magellanic Cloud is close to Indus in the adjacent constellation Tucana ) and transformed Io into a heifer to escape Hera's detection. Hera was not fooled. She demanded the heifer as a present, and Zeus could not refuse her without arousing suspicion. Hera tethered Io to an olive-tree and appointed Argus to be the guardian of the heifer. Argus, or Argos, surnamed Panoptes (pan-, 'all', + optes, 'eyes'), was a giant covered in eyes, depending on the version of the myth he had a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand eyes.

Hermes was sent to distract the guardian and slay him. Hermes, disguised as a shepherd, first put all of Argus's eyes asleep with boring stories then cut off his head. Hera (Juno) placed the eyes of Argus Panoptes 'who sees all', or 'all eyes', on the peacock's tail. These 'eyes' are said to represent the stars in the night sky, or the whole starry sky. Argus never slept, he always had half his eyes open and half closed in sleep at any one time. This might relate to the fact that the Sun is shining on half the earth at any one time while the other half is in darkness under the night stars. Mercury/Hermes, messenger of the gods, (a planet travelling close to the Sun, sometimes appearing before, and with the Sun's rising, at other times with the Sun's setting), cut off Argus' head and thus quenching the lights of the eyes; the lights of the stars. The argus pheasant is a relative of the peacock, Pavo cristatus.

Argus' name is said to be cognate with the Argo of Argo Navis (Jason entrusted the building of the ship to Argus, after whom it was named), and also with Latin argentum, silver, and it was said that Indus , a neighboring constellation, king of Scythia, first discovered silver, Latin argentum, the word is cognate with the word Argus (according to Klein ). The word peacock is related to Pavo, pavan or pavane (peacock dance, a processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century). Taos is the Greek name for the peacock, the French word is paon. Pavonated means peacock blue. Latin paupulo is 'the natural sound of the peacock'. Ponceau is the 'corn poppy' from Old French poncel, a derivative of paon, 'peacock', from Latin pavanem, accusative of pavo, 'peacock'.

French paon was used in some North French dialects in the sense of 'poppy' ( Klein , p.576.) "The word poppy, is from Vulgar Latin *papavum (whence also Old French pavo)" [ Klein , p.577]. The word poppy comes from Latin papaver, 'poppy'. Opium is the solidified juice of the opium poppy, from Greek opos (<*hopos), juice. The peacock was put in the heavens by Juno and the eyes of Argus Panoptes 'who sees all' was 'all eyes' (ocelli, eye-spots) were put on its tail.

[There is a resemblance between Greek ops, genitive opos, 'eye', opsis, 'sight' (the first o is omega), and Greek opos, opium (the first o is omicron)?] "The peacock is called pavo, therefore, from pavor, fear, since its cry produces fear in those who hear it" [ Aberdeen Bestiary ] Latin pavor is related to Latin pavere, to fear, and the word pavid, 'exhibiting or experiencing fear', from the Indo-European root * pau-² 'To cut, strike, stamp'. Derivatives include: putamen (an outer layer), putative (supposed), account, amputate, compute, computer, count¹ (in numbers), depute, dispute, impute, repute, (these words from Latin putare, to prune, clean, settle an account, think over, reflect), computer (from Latin computare which means 'to reckon together', from com- 'together' and putare 'to think, to reckon'), deputy, recount, reputation. b.

Possibly Latin puteus, well: pit¹ (a hole or cavity in the ground.), pave or pavé (pavement, from Latin pavire, to beat), pavid (timid, from Latin pavire, to fear < 'to be struck'), raconteur ( re- + aconter. One who tells stories and anecdotes with skill and wit). [Pokorny 3. peu- 827. Watkins ] Klein sees the word paean, 'a hymn, a song, joy and triumph', from Greek paian, as a likely cognate, a paean is hymn of thanksgiving, often addressed to Apollo, literally 'one who touches', whence used in the sense 'one who heals by a touch', from Greek paio, paiein. Isidore gives his view on how many of these words are related to each other: “Pavements (pavimentum) that are worked out with the skill of a picture have a Greek origin; mosaics (lithostratum) are made from little pieces of shell and tiles colored in various hues.

They are called pavements because they are 'rammed down' (pavire), that is, beaten. From this also comes the word 'dread' (pavor), which strikes the heart” [p.312.]. "Alarmed (pavidus) is one whom agitation of mind disturbs; such a one has a strong beating of the heart, a moving of the heart - for to quake (pavere) is to beat, whence also the term pavimentum (beaten floor; cf. pavire, 'ram down')" [p.227.]. [ The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville , 7th century AD] Pavements are often made with pebbles and counting was done with pebbles. The word pave can also have the meaning 'pave the way', to prepare a smooth easy path. Hermes amputated the head of Argus, and his eyes were put on the tail of the Peacock by Hera.

The peacock represents the starry heavens, the counting of stars is mentioned in the bible: "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." (Genesis 15:5). "I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens" (Exodus 32:13 4 ) "The number five is cognate with Old Indian panca, Tocharian A pan, Greek pente, etc. Plutarch says "five is analogous partly to the father and partly to the mother, being made up of a triad and dyad. Panta (all) is cognate with pente (five), and they [the ancient Egyptians] say 'to reckon by fives' for 'to count'." [ Plutarch. De Iside et Osiride. Ed. with intro J. Gwyn Griffiths. Cambridge: U of Wales P, 1970 ]. A star has five points. The outer dark layer of the lenticular nucleus in the brain is called the putamen. It appears to play a role in reinforcement learning.

Putamen is also a botanical term for the stone in a fruit, such as a peach [ 5 ]. One of the attributes given to the peacock is compassion [ 6 ], from the Indian story of a peacock taking pity on Indra and to hide him from his enemies, raised its tail to form a blind or screen behind which Indra could hide himself. As a reward for this act of compassion, the bird was honored with the jewel-like blue-green plumage that it bears to this day [ 7 ]. "Patient (patiens) is so called from 'striking' - for pavere (i.e. pavire) is 'strike' - for such a one is beaten and endures it.” [p.225.] [ The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville , 7th century AD] The words patience and compassion come from the Indo-European root * péi- Also pe-, pi-. 'To hurt'. Derivatives: fiend (a diabolically evil or wicked person, from Old English feond, enemy, devil, hating, hostile), passible, passion, passive, patient (Latin patiens), compassion, (these words from Latin pati, to suffer).

[Pokorny pe(i)- 792. Watkins ] The Medieval Bestiary said the peacock had the voice of a fiend: "... he hath the voice of a fiend, head of a serpent, pace of a thief. For he hath an horrible voice. " Bartholomaeus Anglicus [13th century CE] (De proprietatibus rerum, book 12) Julius Schiller united Pavo with Indus in his biblical figure 'S. Job.' Job is a character in the Book of Job in the Bible. The devil inflicted great suffering on him. "You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is merciful and compassionate" [James 5:11] _______ "Then Hermes told this story [of Pan and his pursuit of the Nymph Syrinx] … The tale remained untold; for Cyllenius [Hermes] saw all Argus’ eyelids closed and every eye vanquished in sleep.

He stopped and with his wand, his magic wand, soothed the tired resting eyes and sealed their slumber; quick then with his sword he struck off the nodding head and from the rock threw it all bloody, spattering the cliff with gore. Argus lay dead; so many eyes, so bright quenched, and all hundred shrouded in one night. Saturnia [Hera] retrieved those eyes to set in place among the feathers of her bird [the peacock, Pavo] and filled his tail with starry jewels." - Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.624 [ 8 ] Pavo, might relate to the god Pan. Charles de Kay in Bird Gods says; "[the peacock's] name is a variant on that of Pan and generally keeps the initial P, even when, as in Latin pavo, Esthonian pabu, it drops the n. Catalonian has an odd 132 form pago; Burgundian French had paivo; but the Berry dialect retains the n in pante, peahen.

[ Bird Gods ,1898, Charles de Kay, p.132] The French for peacock is paon, Welsh, Serbo-, and Romanian, have paun, for peacock. According to Ovid (above) Mercury told (recounted) a story to Argus [Argos Panoptes, Argos 'all eyes'] as he was trying to lull him to sleep (just before he cut off his head); about how the amorous god, Pan, chased the chaste nymph, Syrinx, and before he could catch up with her she was transformed into reeds of which Pan made his pan-pipes [ 9 ]. This happened before Mercury cut off Argus' head and before Argus' eyes were scattered on the tail of the peacock by Hera/Juno; suggesting that this story had something to do with what was about to happen, perhaps that Argus was about to become Pan. [Aigipan, the goat-fish of Capricorn , is distinct from Pan [ 10 ]].

"Originally an attribute of Pan, he yielded it [the peacock] to Hera/Juno as symbolizing the starry firmament; the Argus eyes are scattered over the tail by Hera" [ J.C. Cooper , p.127]. Both Pan and the peacock's tail are representatives of the starry heavens: "They made Pan the symbol of the universe, and gave him his horns as symbols of sun and moon, and the fawn skin as emblem of the stars in heaven, or of the variety of the universe." [ Porphyry (c. 232 AD - c. 304) Fragment 8] Pan, Greek god of the shepherds, is also the prefix in the word pa-on, which means 'shepherd' and shares its prefix with the modern English word 'pasture' [ 11 ]. In Mesopotamia and the ancient middle-eastern regions the terms sheep or flocks was a metaphor for stars. "Tammuz, the moon god, was given the title of shepherd, the stars being his flock" ( Penguin , p.874). Various groups of stars were referred to as sheepfolds.

The 'straying sheep' was a metaphor for the 'wandering planets'. This Jupiter Project website explains that the meaning of the biblical passage Luke 2:8, "shepherds watching their flock by night" says it meant star-gazing. "The peacock, as Isidore says, gets its name from the sound of its cry. For when it starts, unexpectedly, to give its cry, it produces sudden fear in its hearers. The peacock is called pavo, therefore, from pavor, fear, since its cry produces fear in those who hear it" [from Aberdeen Bestiary webpage ]. Latin pavor (which Isidore thinks is related to Pavo) is often translated into English as panic [ 12 ], although these two words are not recognized cognates. Pan inspired sudden fear in lonely places; "For causeless terrors are said to come from the god Pan" [Pausanias], which gave us the words panic and pandemonium (the screeching of a harem of peacocks might sound like a pandemonium). Pan sometimes appeared to travellers startling them with a sudden awe or terror.

Hunters owed their success to him, and if they were unsuccessful they used to scourge (pavire, to beat?) his statue [ 13 ]. The word pan means 'all' and some believe that the whole starry sky influences all things. He is often referred with the title 'god', 'the god Pan', more so than other Greek gods. In Australia "the Saucepan" is sometimes used as an unofficial name for part of the constellation of Pavo, when finding the south by the stars [ 14 ]. "The peacocks erect and fan out their trains, drooping their half-open wings to the sides and strut and prance from one foot to the other, shivering from time to time to produce a spectacular shimmering, psychedelic display" [ Raghavendra Gadagkar ]. © Anne Wright 2008. Star Tales – Pavo Origin: The 12 southern constellations of Keyser and de Houtman The peacock is one of the 12 figures introduced into the southern skies at the end of the 16th century by the Dutch navigators Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman.

Pavo probably represents not the common blue, or Indian, peacock commonly seen in parks but its larger, more colourful, and more aggressive cousin, the Java green peacock which Keyser and de Houtman would have encountered in the East Indies. Pavo was first depicted in 1598 on a globe by Petrus Plancius and first appeared in print in 1603 on the Uranometria atlas of Johann Bayer. Pavo flourishes a truncated tail on Chart XX of the Uranographia of Johann Bode (1801). In mythology, the peacock was the sacred bird of Hera, who drove through the air in a chariot drawn by peacocks. How the peacock came to have eyes on its tail is the subject of a Greek myth that began one day when Zeus turned his illicit love Io into a white cow to disguise her from his wife, Hera, who nearly caught them together. Hera was suspicious and put the heifer under the guardianship of Argus, who tethered the animal to an olive tree.

Argus was ideally suited to the task of watchman, since he had 100 eyes, of which only two were resting at a time while the others kept a look out. Wherever Argus stood, he could always keep several of his eyes on Io. Zeus sent his son Hermes to release Io from her captivity. Hermes swooped down to Earth and spent the day with Argus, telling him stories and playing his reed pipes until, one by one, the eyes of Argus became sleepy and began to close. When Argus was finally asleep, Hermes lopped off his head and released the heifer. Hera placed the eyes of Argus on the tail of the peacock. The constellation’s brightest star, second-magnitude Alpha Pavonis, is called Peacock, a name given in or around 1937 by the Nautical Almanac Office for use in The Air Almanac. © Ian Ridpath. All rights reserved Constellation of Pavo Constellation of Pavo Roll mouse over picture to see constellation outlines Image and text ©2008 Akira Fujii/David Malin Images.

In the picture above north is at the top and the image covers 29.9 x 37.4 degrees. Image centre is located at 19:15:37.2, -60:11:53 (H:M:S, D:M:S, J2000) Astrometric data from Astrometry.net . Pavo Best seen in the early evening in September Pavo, the Peacock, lies south of Sagittarius and Corona Australis , and is one of Johann Bayer's twelve constellations, introduced in 1603. It is one of several birds in the southern sky, including Apus , Grus , Phoenix and Tucanae . The legends say that the goddess of the heavens, Juno (the Greek Hera) ordered a hundred-eyed giant, Argos Panoptes, to keep his eyes on her errant husband, Jupiter. He ordered Argos slain and Juno transformed the 100 eyes into the Peacock's tail. These eyes are also meant to represent the starry sky.

The only named star in Pavo is Peacock, α Pav, and the adjoining constellations are: h2g2 - Constellations: Pavo 'the Peacock' - Edited Entry Constellations: Pavo 'the Peacock' Content from the guide to life, the universe and everything Constellations: Pavo 'the Peacock' If ever the birds voted for president, king, whatever, it'd have to be the peacock. – An h2g2 Researcher Right Ascension 20h, Declination −65° Origin: Modern Pavo is a small southern constellation which made its debut in the 1603 Uranometria of Johann Bayer. Bordered by Telescopium , Ara , Apus , Octans and Indus , it has only one bright star, but there are several objects of interest to the reader — then there's the Elvis connection (see 'Elvis' section below). The peacock is one of a dozen constellations delineated by Dutch astronomers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman during their voyage to the southern seas between 1595 and 1597 on board the Hollandia.

They drew up five 2 star patterns to represent birds: Pavo; Apus (bird of paradise); Grus (the crane); Phoenix (the legendary firebird ) and Tucana (the toucan). The colourful peacock and its glorious tail is revered in many cultures around the world. Early Christians would say that the hundred 'eyes' of the peacock symbolically represented the stars , the Universe , the Sun , the Moon and the vault of Heaven . Mythology Although the constellation itself is classed 'modern' (not one of the 48 'ancients' listed by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy), there is some mythology attached to the peacock itself. One story concerns Hera, queen of the gods and chief wife of Zeus . Hera was constantly on the lookout from Mount Olympus because Zeus was an unfaithful husband who had many lovers and even fathered children with some of them. Of course this kind of behaviour was humiliating for the queen so when she discovered new liaisons her wrath ensured the scattering of hordes. Even Zeus was known to skedaddle until enough time had passed for her to have cooled off.

When Hera discovered her husband's latest dalliance with the beautiful mortal maiden Io 3 , Zeus morphed Io into a gorgeous white cow then retreated to a safe distance. Hera commanded multi-eyed Argus to guard Io the cow while she pursued her errant husband. The story of Io and Argus has its own Edited Guide Entry but the outcome was that after Argus had been killed, Hera placed his eyes in the tail feathers of her pet bird — the awesome peacock . Stars The scientific star names, known as 'Bayer designations', are simple to understand (if you know your Greek alphabet ). For example: the 'alpha' star normally means that it is the brightest star in that constellation. Some stars have proper names as well, while others are known by their catalogue numbers. Star 80 Binary Alpha Pavonis is the only named star of this constellation. Peacock, or Eye of the Peacock, is a 2nd- magnitude blue giant star and the brightest in that region. Delta Pavonis is less than 20 light years away from our Solar System, and of a similar construction to our own Sun.

This makes it a target for the NASA TPF (Terrestrial Planet Finder) mission planned for launch between 2014 and 2020 5 . Kappa Pavonis is a white supergiant variable ranging between +3.9 mag and +4.8 mag over a nine day period. Mu Pavonis is a binary system comprising an orange giant (mu1) and an orange main sequence star (mu2). The binary system phi Pavonis features a white giant and a white dwarf pairing. New General Catalogue (NGC) The NGC catalogue was compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer (the director of the Armagh Observatory from 1882 to 1916). Catalogue Supernova 2000cj Globular cluster NGC 6752 was discovered by James Dunlop on 28 July, 1826. It contains over 100,000 stars. NGC 6872 is a stretched spiral galaxy measuring around three quarters of a million light years from the end of one arm to the extreme tip of the other.

The elongation is highly unusual, and possibly due to a previous encounter of the galactic kind with its neighbour, the much smaller galaxy IC 4970. Spiral galaxy NGC 6782 has a ring (called a circumnuclear ring) around its double-barred central core. The inner arms have joined to form an outer almond-shaped layer, giving an overall impression of an eye in space . The wispy trailing outer arms are barely distinguishable except on close inspection. NGC 6744 is a beautiful barred spiral galaxy, similar to our own Milky Way . NGC 6744A is a nearby companion galaxy, somewhat distorted from previous interaction. NGC 6684 is another barred spiral, but this is unusual in that it has an elliptical inner ring aligned with the bar. It was mistakenly catalogued as a globular cluster in 1947. NGC 6753 is a spiral galaxy situated just inside the border with Telescopium.

Supernova SN2000cj was discovered in May 2000 by Australian amateur astronomer Rev Robert Evans , a member of the International Astronomical Union and the Astronomical Society of Australia. Rev Evans co-discovered non-periodic Comet Evans Drinkwater in 1996. He has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and the Centenary Medal of the Société Astronomique de France. As of September 2007, Rev Evans had chalked up 41 supernovae on his scoreboard. Being so close to the magic number 42 called for direct contact with Rev Evans who confirmed his 42nd supernova (SN2008aw in NGC 4939) was in March 2008, independent of the Lick Observatory team who discovered it just hours before. Meteor Showers The space debris which creates a meteor shower comes from the tail of a comet , as the Earth crosses the point where the comet has passed previously on its own orbit. Imagine a trail of breadcrumbs, or sawdust like that used in hashing . The meteor shower connected with this constellation is called the Delta Pavonids.

As the gradient is so far south, the shower is only viewable in the Southern Hemisphere. The shower begins around 3 April and lasts until 8 April, reaching a maximum on 6 April. Although the highest recorded ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) was seven in 1987, more recent observations produced only a tally of (on average) three. Extrasolar Planets in Pavo There have been some extrasolar planetary systems detected in the constellation Pavo. The table below shows the length of the planet's orbital period around its parent star, which we know of as a year. The mass of the extrasolar planet is compared to that of Jupiter , our Solar System's largest planet, known by astronomers as the 'Jovian scale'. Extrasolar Planets Table Heavenly Aviaries - Bird Constellations - Astronomy Heavenly Aviaries - Bird Constellations Birds are well represented among the constellations and nebulae. Cygnus the swan My favorite is Cygnus, a beautiful northern constellation and one of the few whose pattern resembles what it represents: a swan with outstretched wings. Here is Cygnus with the swan's head down .

But think of it the opposite way up and it's the Northern Cross. This is a well known asterism, a pattern of stars that isn't a constellation. Cygnus's brightest star Deneb is also one corner of the asterism called the Summer Triangle , although it's visible for most of the year. Sometimes I see swans flying low along the Thames. Many birds use the river as a highway. Cygnus reminds me of this as it flies along the Milky Way ï¿½ its bright stars make it recognizable even in the city. The constellation was already ancient when Ptolemy described it in the Almagest in the second century. The most famous story associated with it is the seduction of Leda the queen of Sparta by the god Zeus (Jupiter to the Romans) in the guise of a swan. Aquila the eagle Aquila is the eagle who carried Zeus's thunderbolts of Zeus and occasionally aided the god in his seductions. Like Cygnus, Aquila is an ancient constellation described by Ptolemy.

The brightest star Altair (flying bird) is a second vertex of the Summer Triangle and interestingly, the third vertex is also a bird, Vega in the constellation Lyra (the harp). The Arabs knew Vega as a swooping eagle, and its Latin name meant vulture. Johann Bode represented Lyra in his Uranographia with Vega as a bird. Just below the eagle's tail in neighboring Scutum is the Wild Duck Cluster (Messier object M11). To an early observer it resembled the V of a flight of wild ducks, though this feature tends not to show up in photographs. It's an open star cluster like the Pleiades, but about thirteen times farther away. First magnitude stars are very bright ones and this cluster contains hundreds of them ï¿½ it would be a dazzling sight if it were closer. Southern constellations by Petrus Plancius The south polar region was unknown to northern astronomers, so instead of constellations of antiquity, they are inventions from the late 16th century onwards. Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius used observations by Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman to invent a dozen new ones.

Unlike traditional constellations, the Plancius constellations have few named stars and lack associated myths. Plancius seemed inspired by natural history in his choices, six of which represented birds. He put the constellations on a celestial globe, but their first appearance in print was in Johann Bayer's Uranometria (1603). Here's how Bayer depicted Apus, Pavo, Tucana, Grus and Phoenix . Apus is the bird of paradise, a name coming from a Greek word meaning "footless". It wasn't until the 19th century that a European saw a live bird of paradise. Traders had the preserved skins and plumes of the birds, but the feet and wings had been removed. This give rise to a common belief that the birds had no feet, and spent their lives floating in the air held up by their plumes. Although Pavo was unknown to the Greeks, the peacock echoes Greek mythology. Peacocks drew the chariot of the goddess Hera (wife of Zeus). Pavo's neighbor in Bayer's star atlas is Grus. Grus is a crane, though that's not so obvious from Bayer's drawing.

Here is Grus as shown by Hevelius in his Uranographia. It was formed out of the traditional constellation Piscis Notius, and some of the stars have Arabic names. Tucana (the toucan) is a fairly undistinguished constellation, notable because it contains the Small Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way. The final bird in the group is a mythological one, the Phoenix. It lived for 500 years before being consumed by fire, and was then resurrected from the ashes as a young bird. The Emu European explorers invented southern constellations without reference to local star lore. A prominent indigenous constellation is the Australian aboriginal Emu (related to the ostrich). Their sky patterns weren't based solely on stars. This one relies substantially on dark nebulae. Here is the Emu in the Sky imaged by Barnaby Norris. Eagle Nebula A classic image from the Hubble Space Telescope is the "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens. The "pillars" are enormous clouds of gas and dust, the largest of them seven light years long. Within them stars are being formed.

Corvus Corvus (crow or raven) is a constellation described by Ptolemy. Although it has eleven stars theoretically visible with the unaided eye, Ptolemy mentioned only seven. It contains the planetary nebula NGC 4361 , which is beautifully spherical with the dying star in the center. As the star shrinks and cools, it sloughs off its outer atmosphere to form the nebula. (Image: Adam Block) Related Links: h2g2 - Constellations: Phoenix 'the Mythological Firebird' - Edited Entry Constellations: Phoenix 'the Mythological Firebird' Content from the guide to life, the universe and everything Constellations: Phoenix 'the Mythological Firebird' Created Right Ascension 01h, Declination −50° Origin: Modern The southern constellation Phoenix 2 is one of a dozen constellations delineated by Dutch astronomers Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtman during their voyage to the southern seas between 1595 and 1597 on board the Hollandia.

They drew up five 3 star patterns to represent birds: Phoenix; Grus (the crane); Apus (bird of paradise); Pavo (the peacock); and Tucana (the toucan). Phoenix made its debut in the 1603 Uranometria of Johann Bayer, who drew it as a firebird. But historically it has also represented the griffin and the ostrich. Bordered by Fornax , Sculptor , Grus, Tucana and Eridanus , there are no Messier objects, and only a few deep-space NGC items to report. However, there are some interesting features, including an historical meteor shower connected to a mysterious comet first recorded in 1819, and some exciting extrasolar planet discoveries bringing us bang up to date. Mythology and Historical References Phoenix is a modern constellation, so there is no ancient mythology attached to it. However, there are plenty of legends about the phoenix bird which the star pattern honours. The Chinese know the phoenix as the magical 'firebird', a beautiful creature which lived to between 100 and 1,000 years, and was then consumed by fire.

From the ashes, a brand new bird emerged; a perpetual cycle of life, death and rebirth. In Feng Shui the phoenix is a symbol of good luck which dates back 2,000 years. Stars The scientific star names are simple to understand (if you know your Greek alphabet ). For example: the 'alpha' star means it is the brightest star in that constellation. The next brightest is designated 'beta' etc. Combined with the genitive name, this is known as the ' Bayer designation '. Some stars have proper names as well, for example, alpha Phoenicis is Ankaa. Others are known by their catalogue number. Alpha Phoenicis, Ankaa ('head of the phoenix'), is an orange giant star which has a companion, although so little is known about it that it is not even classified. Ankaa can be located in the northern hemisphere by star-hopping from the asterism the 'Great Square' of Pegasus , but you need an uninterrupted view of the horizon.

Nu Phoenicis is of interest because, not only is it the closest star of this constellation to us (at just 49 light years 4 distance), but of a similar stellar make-up to our Sun - and it has a dust disk. Beta Phoenicis is a binary system comprising a yellow giant and yellow dwarf double act. Delta Phoenicis is a binary system. Delta2 Phoenicis is a yellow sub-giant which has a planet in its habitable zone (see Extrasolar Planets section below). Star Table has a dust disk New General Catalogue (NGC) The NGC was compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer (director of the Armagh Observatory from 1882 to 1916). NGC 625 is a barred spiral galaxy. One of the outermost members of the Sculptor Group, it is 13 million light years distant but shines +11 magnitude - so telescope owners in the southern hemisphere should be able to track this beauty down. Robert's Quartet is a collection of four galaxies in the process of merging.

The group is 160 million light years away and the members, which each have their own individual NGC number, average +14 magnitude. NGC 92 is the largest component; one of its already-distorted spiral arms is 100,000 light years in length. Robert's Quartet Top left Phoenix Dwarf Galaxy Our Milky Way galaxy is part of the 'Local Group' that contains lots of galaxies. Ours is a spiral, along with the grand design Triangulum Galaxy (M33) and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), which has two companion elliptical galaxies, M32 and NGC 205. The rest of the local group are either elliptical or irregular like the Magellanic Clouds. Some are dwarf galaxies, including the Phoenix Dwarf which measures just a few thousand light years across, and lies 1½ million light years from the Milky Way.

Discovered at the ESO (European Southern Observatory) by German astronomer Hans Schuster and Richard West in 1976, it was given the designation PGC 006830 (Principal Galaxies Catalogue) after its original classification of 'globular cluster' ESO 245-G 007 was proved incorrect. At first glance the Phoenix Dwarf galaxy looks more like an open (or globular) cluster of stars. But, after further research, it is now considered to be in transition between a dwarf spheroidal and a dwarf irregular galaxy. Meteor Shower The space debris which creates a meteor shower comes from the tail of a comet as the Earth crosses where the point the comet has passed previously on its own orbit. Imagine a trail of breadcrumbs, or sawdust like that used in hashing . The comet in this case is D/1819 W1 (Blanpain) , now officially recorded as a 'lost periodic comet', which means it has not returned when it was expected. One possible explanation is that an error was made during the calculation of its orbit when it was first discovered in 1819.

The meteor shower connected with the comet is called the Phoenicids, which was first recorded on 5 December, 1956, when 61 meteors were noted. The display produced a number of bright meteors, with the mean brightness being +2.4 mag. There was then a gap until 1972, and meteors were also noted in 1973, 1976, and 1977, although the maximum was a rather disappointing five per hour. Extrasolar Planets in Phoenix There had been several extrasolar planetary systems found in this constellation; the first was discovered in 2000. Figures given in the table below are the length of the planet's orbital period around its parent star, which we know of as a year. The mass of the extrasolar planet is compared with that of Jupiter , our Solar System's largest planet, known by astronomers as the 'Jovian scale'. The most interesting, from our point of view, is Delta2 Phoenicis, a yellow sub-giant star which is 67 light years distant.

Fairly inconspicuous in itself, it just happens to have a gas giant planet, Delta2 Phoenicis b, orbiting in its habitable zone. Obviously not a candidate for extra-terrestrial life itself, any moons that it may have which possess enough gravity to retain an atmosphere could be a distinct possibility. Speculation about any inhabitants has already been mentioned in the light-hearted Entry ' Broadcasting to our Galactic Neighbours '. Extrasolar Planets Table

Question: The constellation Pavo represents which bird?
Answer: PEACOCK